President Akufo Addo dismisses ASEPA petition to remove Chief Justice

A petition brought against the Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah by the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability over some bribery allegations has been dismissed by President Akufo Addo.

The civil society group petitioned the President to remove the Chief Justice after a lawyer, Kwasi Afrifa, alleged that his former client had been asked by the Chief Justice to pay a bribe of US$ 5m to influence a case in his favor.

However, in a response addressed to the Executive Director of ASEPA, Mr. Mensah Thompson, the President determined that “the petition [was] not anchored on any allegation made directly or emanating from the Petitioner itself. The Petitioner relies on allegations made by a certain lawyer, Mr. Akwasi Afrifa, in his response of misconduct made against him pending at the General Legal Council, wherein the said lawyer also makes allegations against the Chief Justice based on what he alleges another person (his former client) told him”.

This “third hand or fourth hand hearsay” which forms “the basis for seeking to trigger the serious process for the removal of a Chief Justice of the Republic from office” is the grounds on which the President has dismissed the petition from ASEPA.

In a separate paragraph of the same letter sighted by Dennislaw News, the President recalls that the alleged original source of this accusation, Ogyeedom Kwasi Atta VI, has also publicly denied any such transactions or knowing the Chief Justice.

“In my view, the categorical denial by Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI, who is purportedly the source of the hearsay, is an important fact to be placed on the record,” the President noted.

ASEPA had earlier petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on the matter. However, CHRAJ decided against investigating the matter because ASEPA had also petitioned the Presidency.

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